parking Lightning in a Bottle: $64.85 Single Click from Parking Revenue

[Alvin Brown]

There’s been much talk in the last few weeks about parking revenue and its impact on the domain industry in its entirety.

While it’s safe to say that domain parking revenue may not ever return to the “good old days”, I found what Mike Berkens had to say about parking revenue and the role it vital role it plays to be interesting, to say the least.

Nearly a decade ago, Mike expressed that the drop parking revenue has drastically decreased live domain auction overall sales — auctions going from over $10M in sales to just under $2M.

Michael Gilmour (@Whizzbang) — domain investor, developer, and founder of ParkLogic — shared a unique perspective towards domain monetization in general while expressing his concerns, in short order, that many of today's domain investors lack clarity and understanding about how domain monetization actually works today.

Both articles are certainly worth their time in reading and reviewing.

I have personally never considered domain parking to truly be a lucrative source of income — although Gilmour’s reasoning and perspective is enough to make me reconsider at surface level.

In fact, I have approximately 1,200 domains parked using GoDaddy’s CashParking service over the last 7 years — number of domains fluctuating each year up or down a couple of hundred or so.

Over the years, I bring in a measly $3.50 per day on average, and at least $1,200 annually.

However, last month I witnessed a bit of "lightning in the bottle" when I discovered a spike in domain parking revenue, thanks to a single click totaling $64.85 for a geo service domain.

FYI: Yes, the check did clear as of 10/24.​

 

[Hypersot]

Now, that's something we haven't seen for a while.
Congrats but be aware that there can be chargebacks that can spoil the moment.

I don't know how GD parking works but it's not uncommon to get paid and then get notified of a chargeback.

 

[Mark Umansky]

I hope it's not a stupid question, but how does this happen? I have a basic understanding of how parking and CPC works, but how would it amount to $64 from just one click?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Can I ask a probably really dumb question? What is a katy garage door and why does it command such a high cost per click? Is it Katy as in the place in Texas, or something totally different? Thanks.

 

[Alvin Brown]

@Bob Hawkes and @Mark Umansky - Great questions.

Yes, Katy is a suburb of Houston, just west of Houston, as well as West Virginia, Missouri, and Louisiana.

As for the high cost per click, this is likely due to the cost of garage installation and repair being a somewhat costly experience per transaction for customers. Per Disruptive Advertising, service providers attempting to use search marketing to find customers in need of garage door install or repair often times pay $100-$200 per lead.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for explanation and link. When I first saw it I thought of Katy Perry but that did not make sense unless she was into influencer marketing of garage doors which seemed unlikely.

Wow those are incredible costs per click. Maybe I need to look into garage door domain names!

Thanks again,

Bob

 

[Alvin Brown]

Thanks for explanation. When I first saw it I thought of Katy Perry but that did not make sense unless she was into influencer marketing of garage doors which seemed unlikely.

Wow those are incredible costs per click. Maybe I need to look into garage door domain names!

Thanks again,

Bob

 

[biggie]

Congrats on the $64 click, that's something to talk about!

but that other news, ain't really news.

i've been earning ppc income for a good 13 -14 years
highest click was $75

and there are hundreds of other domainers who've done the same.

also, just from the numbers you posted, it's evident you don't see the value in the roi you're currently
getting from ppc.

I have personally never considered domain parking to truly be a lucrative source of income

I have approximately 1,200 domains parked

I bring in a measly $3.50 per day on average, and at least $1,200 annually.

if you have 1,200 domains and earn $1,200 a year in ppc…. that's 10% return on the list, if you're paying an average of $12,000 a year in renewal fee's.

one could reduce the list and move some names to other ppc's, and that return could be higher and costs could go down.

there is plenty of good advice, knowledge, and experience right here

imo...

 

[Alvin Brown]

Congrats on the $64 click, that's something to talk about!

but that other news, ain't really news.

i've been earning ppc income for a good 13 -14 years
highest click was $75

and there are hundreds of other domainers who've done the same.

also, just from the numbers you posted, it's evident you don't see the value in the roi you're currently
getting from ppc.





if you have 1,200 domains and earn $1,200 a year in ppc…. that's 10% return on the list, if you're paying an average of $12,000 a year in renewal fee's.

one could reduce the list and move some names to other ppc's, and that return could be higher and costs could go down.

there is plenty of good advice, knowledge, and experience right here

imo...

Hi Biggie,

It's not that I don't see the value in the ROI I'm currently receiving from GoDaddy's CashParking service. I referenced "measly" only in comparison to my overall annual domain sales. Of course, I could benefit from investing more time to rightly align my domain portfolio to an optimized parking strategy. While my earnings at the current moment are "measly", I'm counting my blessings for the $1,200 annual earnings, because it could be a goose egg not contributing to any of the overall expenses.

 

[Mark Umansky]

That's a really interesting explanation, guess you're right, might be time to start investing in garage door repair Regarding parking, what do you guys think is more useful: directing your pages to forward directly to your website or to have monetized parking pages such as these? All my domains are currently directing to their listings on my website and I wasn't sure whether or not that is the right call.

 

[biggie]

Regarding parking, what do you guys think is more useful: directing your pages to forward directly to your website or to have monetized parking pages such as these? All my domains are currently directing to their listings on my website and I wasn't sure whether or not that is the right call.

Hi

using your website:
you could add some adsense and some affiliate links on pages where the names are related, if you want to try and squeeze some $ from it, while waiting for offers.

or, you can park them at some of the ppc platforms and see what happens

or, you can park some of them, and leave the others pointing to your website.

or, you can park your website, and point all your names to a lander

or, etc


everybody has to work their own groove, and get in... where they fit in.

imo...

 

[equity78]

Always nice to see the big clicks haven't had one that big in a long time. Congrats Alvin.

 

[Whizzbang]

Interesting thread and many thanks to Alvin for reading my blog! I would agree with Biggie that the best thing you can do for your domains is to segment them:
1. Place any domains that do more than 1 unique per day with a solution such as ParkLogic (disclaimer: I am one of the founders).
2. The balance of the domains should be sent to a lander that has all of your domains list and ideally searchable.

After doing this, take any domains that make no revenue from traffic monetisation and point them to your own sales lander. This will ideally maximise your revenue from both sales and traffic monetisation.